Conscious Practitioner Week 5
Dr Digdem Sezen digdem.sezen@uca.ac.uk
by Selcuk Erdem
(or a map of your home country)
Jaap Van Ginneken
Drawn by a student from Holland
Drawn by a student from Japan
Drawn by a student from Brazil
Drawn by a student from the US
Drawn by a student from Palestine
Drawn by a student from Indonesia
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of over 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.
When did globalisation start?
Albert Park, Middlesbrough – Sundial (1876)
first published in French in 1872
1872
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto
The phrase comes from the Roman playwright Terence in his 165 BCE play Heautontimorumenos (The Self-Tormentor)
Jeffrey SACHS
Ages of Globalization: Dates and Breakthroughs
Source: Jeffrey Sachs, Ages of Globalization, Columbia University Press, 2020, p.26
War and peace in the global village: M. McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, 1968
Biology
Climate
Art
Ideas
Business
Science
Trade
Migration
Ecology
Technology
AAA Dominant Hubs
Emerging Hubs
Massive budgets
Lower budgets
Large teams (hundreds–thousands)
Small/indie teams
Aggressive global marketing
Limited reach
Stories designed to appeal to “everyone”
Strong local cultural identity
Huge risk tolerance due to funding
High vulnerability to market failure
Türkiye (TaleWorlds, Ankara)
India (Nodding Heads Games)
Taiwan (Red Candle Games)
“Globalised success”
Not culturally inclusive because…
Fortnite
Over 400M players worldwide
Art style and cultural signals rooted in US pop culture
FIFA
Global brand, millions of players from every region
Eurocentric representation, major clubs & leagues prioritised
Open world AAA like GTA
Global sales, universal gameplay format
Narratives based on US city tropes and crime myths
Localisation adapts culture around a finished game, co-authorship shapes the game from within the culture.
Element
Japanese Version
U.S. Localised Version
What This Shows
Setting
Tokyo-like city
“Los Angeles, USA”
America only in name, visuals stay Japanese
Legal System
Based on Japanese courts (quick trials, confession-driven)
Still presented as U.S. courts
Cultural logic unchanged
School Culture
Sailor uniforms, Japanese school design
Still shown visually
Localisation can’t erase embedded context
Food
Bento, onigiri (rice balls)
Renamed as “burgers” in dialogue
Text changed, visuals not
Names
Puns in Japanese (e.g., Naruhodo = “I see”)
Westernised puns (Phoenix Wright)
Different humour but original meanings lost
Architecture & Surroundings
Shrines, hot springs, kanji signage
Kept the same
Worldbuilding remains Japanese
Humour & References
Based on Japanese pop culture
Rewritten for American audiences
Cultural translation over adaptation
Aspect
How Culture Shapes the Game
Story
Based on Inupiat traditional storytelling : young girl and fox navigating Arctic challenges
Characters
Designed with Inupiat community members to ensure authentic roles, clothing, mannerisms
Game Mechanics
Cooperative mechanics reflect Indigenous values of interdependence and community survival
Visual Style
Art inspired by traditional clothing, environment, and animal symbolism
Embedded Knowledge
Short documentary “cultural insight” videos unlock as you progress — stories told by Elders
Authorship
Co-developed with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, not for but with the community
Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa) : Alaska Native Co-authorship
shout out 3 games that feel “global”
Shout out 3 games that feel “local” or culturally specific
AAA-scale innovation outside U.S/Japan reverse influence on global RPGs
Sets new standards for MMOs
art style + systems now copied globally
Non-Western
medieval world-building
influencing strategy
& mod culture
Afro-Brazilian physics platformer shaping indie aesthetics
ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION
CULTURAL GLOBALISATION
POLYCENTRISM: A NEW CULTURAL LOGIC
Game development = transnational production chains
AAA studios outsource to cheaper labour regions (art assets, QA, localisation)
Platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Tencent, Valve, Apple) dominate distribution
Mobile gaming + F2P economies expanded reach to Global South
Globalised labour ≠ globalised authorship
Game development
=
transnational production chains
Riot Games: owned by Tencent (China), run from U.S.
Multinational but not polycentric
AAA studios outsource to cheaper labour regions (art assets, QA, localisation)
Art
Testing
If a game is built in 10 countries, whose story is it telling?
Does global labour automatically mean global creativity?”
Concept
Key Question
Example
Economic Globalisation
Who controls production?
Ubisoft, EA, Riot
Cultural Globalisation
Who defines the “global” aesthetic?
CoD, FIFA, Phoenix Wright
Polycentrism
How does power shift across cultures?
Genshin Impact, Raji, Dandara